President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview Monday that it was a "mistake" to say he wanted to put a "bull's-eye" on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions.
Those remarks from Biden came during a private call with donors last week as the Democrat had been scrambling to shore up his imperiled candidacy with key party constituencies. During that conversation, Biden declared that he was "done" talking about his poor debate performance and that it was "time to put Trump in the bull's-eye," saying Trump has gotten far too little scrutiny on his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.
Insisting "there was very little focus on Trump's agenda," Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt that while he acknowledged his "mistake," he nonetheless is "not the guy who said I wanted to be a dictator on day one" and that he wanted the focus to be on what Trump was saying. It's Trump, not Biden, who engages in that kind of rhetoric, Biden said, referring to Trump’s past comments about a "bloodbath" if the Republican loses to Biden in November.
"Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?" Biden said. "Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?"
The interview was occurring the same day that his reelection team was preparing to resume full-throttle campaigning after the assassination attempt on Trump, particularly after the GOP nominee announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate — which unleashed a flurry of criticism from the Biden campaign and other Democrats about the young freshman senator's policy positions.
"He’s a clone of Trump on the issues," Biden told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base shortly before departing for Nevada for a series of speeches and campaign events. "I don’t see any difference."
Once Vance was tapped as Trump's vice-presidential pick, the Biden campaign hit send on a fundraising solicitation signed by the president, and his team issued a blistering statement, saying he picked the freshman senator because he would "bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda." For her part, Vice President Kamala Harris phoned Vance to congratulate him and left him a voicemail message, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The NBC interview, scheduled before the attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania, had been part of Biden’s broader strategy to prove his fitness for office after angst grew among Democrats because of his disastrous June 27 debate performance.
The Biden campaign recalibrated some of its political plans in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on Saturday, pulling advertising off the air and hitting pause on messaging. The White House also scrapped Biden’s planned Monday visit to the Lyndon B. Johnson library, where he had been slated to deliver remarks on civil rights.
It’s still not finalized when Biden’s campaign ads will resume airing. But Biden is pressing on with the Nevada portion of his previously scheduled western swing, which will include remarks to the NAACP and UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights and advocacy group. He’ll also headline what’s been billed as a "campaign community event" on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
Biden has acknowledged that his candidacy and agenda will be under attack at the Republican National Convention this week, and aides had felt no need to halt their campaign completely, particularly while Biden comes under scrutiny in Milwaukee.
Asked whether Biden would adjust his messaging this week in light of the assassination attempt, O'Malley Dillon pointed to his Oval Office address as a "roadmap for the whole country," which she said was no different than Biden's broader message from the start of his candidacy.
"You're going to hear the president continue to make his affirmative agenda clear," she said. "Not just in abstract terms, but very specifically on how it continues to help the American people versus this very negative point of view and extreme agenda that the American people have already said that they don’t want."
Biden’s renewed campaigning this week comes as Democrats have been at an impasse over whether the incumbent president should continue in the race even as he was defiant that he would stay in. Biden has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he remains in the race, and aides have been operating as such.
It was unclear if the attempt on Trump’s life would blunt Democratic efforts to urge Biden to step aside, but it appears to have stalled some of the momentum, for now. No Democrats have called for him to exit the race since the shooting Saturday night.
